Proposal for Pilot and Company-Wide Roll-Out
Many businesses are now in the situation where they have many, or virtually all their staff working from home. For some, this may be part of their normal working pattern but there are many who have never worked at home before. They have switched their ergonomic workstation in the office for the kitchen table and chair and a laptop, or worst still – sitting on the sofa. This is highly likely to result in pain – back pain, neck and shoulder pain, or elbow, wrist, and hand RSI type issues. They are going to start to hurt and many of these injuries can lead to chronic, longstanding problems – that can end up requiring time off work.
This current situation with the COVID-19 lockdown, and social distancing is going to be with us for many weeks and months to come and as businesses we have a duty of care to our staff.
I am offering to deliver an online training program to:
- Support business in their duty of care to home working employees
- Help them actively take care of their employees
- Reduce the risks to employees of developing musculoskeletal problems as a consequence of working in a non-ideal home office environment
- Reduce the risk of employees taking time off sick with problems resulting from poor sitting and workstation posture
The format will be a 20-minute presentation with around 15 mins for Q&A at the end. – timings can vary depending on amount of content required.
A resource sheet will be provided for everyone that takes part to support the information shared during the training.
The online training program covers the following topics
- · Ergonomics of home office – chair, desk, laptop – best set up with options available
- · Setting up your chair for optimum posture and alignment and how to sit in it!
- · When and how to move
- · Exercises and stretches to reduce risk of back, neck and shoulder pain
- · Relaxation and Breathing exercises
- · What to do if you get pain – ‘Home ‘first aid’ for muscle pain and spasm’
- · How to get the most out of working from home – routines and keeping in touch with colleagues
If appropriate I can include information on Hydration, Nutrition, Sleep and Stress
For the past 12 years, I have run The Bingley Physiotherapy Practice, and have vast experience in dealing with all these issues. How people sit and move (or not) at their place of work are so often a contributing factor for many of the problems that I see.
I have a wealth of experience on working from home, as before I trained to become a physio, I worked for BT in Corporate Sales, and started working from home in around 1996. As a telecoms company, BT led the way with what was known then as ‘Teleworking’ both for their own staff and selling the technology for their clients to enable their teams to work remotely too. The technology has come a long way in the past 24 years – but the majority of other issues associated with working from home have not changed that much.
In addition to be being able to advise you in my capacity as a physiotherapist, I can bring my knowledge on the real life practicalities of what it means for individuals to work from home and the pros and cons of doing so. From the extra time that it generates for them of not having to commute, to the possible downside of missing out on those chance conversations in the office that lead to solving a problem for them or cultivation a new idea. It is vital that all aspects of what is gained and lost from not all being in the same place to work are considered.
Delivery mechanism
Pilot
It is recommended to run at least one, 40-minute live Zoom presentation to a selected group of employees.
This will include time for Q& A at the end
Need all people attending to:
- sign off to say that they have seen training
- record what changes they are going to make to their own situation and submit back to their line manager
Company-wide roll out
Option to deliver 1 or 2 more live Presentations to chosen audience, e.g management teams
Digital delivery of a recorded presentation via an online platform (for your use only) giving employees more options as to when they can complete the program. This recording will be bespoke presentation for your business.
Attendees will have to
- Sign in to register for the training
- It will be set up that they have to watch the whole training in order to click that they have completed it
- record what changes they are going to make to their own situation and submit back to their line manager
Additional package
Random follow up sessions
To support the business in actively taking care of the employees, it is important to ensure that all employees implement the necessary recommendations that apply to them, identified after the training and submitted to their manager. I can offer a number of follow-up sessions to check this.
In the unfortunate event that an employee were to be unwell, or need an extended period of time off work as a result of working from home, this process will validate that the employee has acted upon the training given.
This would involve the business selecting a random sample of staff to be ‘spot checked’ via the follow-up call. I would suggest 4 -6 people per call (up to 30-minute call) and to cover say 2-5% of the employees.
If you would like to discuss this matter with me further, then please get in touch and we can look at how I can best deliver this service to best support your business needs
Jacqui Taylor MCSP
BSc(Hons) Physiotherapy ;Meng(Hons) Microelectronics & Software Engineering PgDIp (Dist) Business Management
Director, The Bingley Physiotherapy Practice Ltd
106, Main Street, Bingley, BD16 2RW
Email: jacqui@bingleyphysio.com
Mobile: 07736 246049
